Encyclopedia of Folk Medicine: Old World and New World Traditions

More than 240 entries representing folk medical practices used in North
America, Britain, Ireland, and Scotland were gleaned from extensive
research. Articles are followed by no less than a dozen scholarly
references related to the study of superstition and folklore. Ranging
from a concise paragraph to several pages in length, entries include
the treating of ailments and conditions such as Insect bites and stings (applying spit, urine, soda, vinegar, or well-chewed tobacco); Palsy (ingesting cowslip, applying leeches, or holding a dying chicken); and wrinkles (drinking elderflower water, goat's milk, or an infusion of butterwort) and the supporting of contraception
(using birch bark diaphragms, impotence-inducing Rhus trilobata, or
eating heart ventricles). Other entries discuss the various uses of
remedies such as dandelion and Holly. See also references follow each article, and an index completes the volume.

In
concept, this volume is an ambitious effort, an attempt to record for
future consideration and study a host of old-world and new-world folk
traditions. Such traditions are often passed down by word of mouth from
generation to generation, but the current resurgence in using
alternative treatment and natural remedies to treat ailments makes
examination of this volume worthwhile. This is not a health reference
book, however; it would be as much at home in folk culture collections
as in a library's medical section. Public libraries with patron
interest or academic libraries with collections in traditional medicine
would profit from the author's historical approach.